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MANAGEMENT GIANT

Leo Burnett

Timeline
1891 1930 1935 1940 1950 1955 1967 1971 Born. Joins Erwin Wasey as creative vice president. Borrows $50,000 and starts his own agency. Leo Burnett agency lands first major new client, the American Meat Institute. Procter and Gamble appoints Leo Burnett for an institutional campaign. Retained by Philip Morris to develop a campaign for Marlboro cigarettes. Retiresalthough he continues to work at his agency part time. Dies.

Summary
Leo Burnett (18911971) changed the face of advertising in the United States. After working his way through a number of agencies, including Homer McKee and Erwin Wasey, he resisted the lure of the Madison Avenue agencies in New York and in 1935 established his own business in Chicago. After a hesitant start, Burnetts distinctive style of advertising soon attracted major clients such as Procter & Gamble. The Leo Burnett advertising agency went on to produce some of the most striking advertising of its time, including the Marlboro Man campaign. Burnetts advertising philosophy gave rise to the Chicago School of advertising, and by his death in 1971 he was universally acknowledged as one of the most influential figures in his industry.

Life And Career

Leo Burnett was born George Noble Burnett in St. Johns, Michigan, on October 21, 1891. The name Leo was a result of hospital officials mistaking the abbreviated Geo. for Leo. The name stuck. Burnett started out in advertising young. His father owned a dry goods store and Burnett would design and draw the display cards, little realizing that advertising would come to play such an important part in his life. He attended the local high school, moonlighting as

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a reporter for several weekly newspapers in the area. Immediately after graduation he briefly took up a position as a teacher in St. Johns single-classroom village school before heading for the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. At the university, Burnett earned a degree in journalism. Once again he continued to work throughout his studies, this time both as a night editor at the Michigan Daily and producing display cards for a department store. Leaving the university he worked at the Peoria [Illinois] Journal as a reporter for $18 a week. He remained there for about a year, until the lure of the burgeoning automobile industry proved too great and he set off for Detroit. In Detroit Burnett joined the Cadillac Motor Car Company as editor of an in-house magazine. He had been tipped off about the job by one of his old college professors and, as part of his application, wrote an essay on neatness that sufficiently impressed the people at Cadillac to win him the job. Soon Burnett had been handed responsibility for Cadillacs advertising. The pattern for his social and professional life was set.

Contribution
After a brief stint in the U.S. Navy during World War Imuch of it spent building a breakwater in Lake MichiganBurnett, with several other Cadillac employees, broke away to form LaFayette Motors. He followed LaFayette to Indianapolis but when the company moved to Wisconsin he remained in Indianapolis as creative head at the Homer McKee advertising agency. He settled at Homer McKee for ten years as a copywriter. In 1929 the stock market crash affected advertising agencies severely. Homer McKee was no exception, losing one of its major automobile accounts. Now with a young family, Burnett needed a secure job and decided to move on. The family moved to Chicago in 1930, and Burnett signed up for Erwin Wasey as creative vice president. At the time Erwin Wasey was one of the leading advertising agencies in the world. Shortly after Burnett joined, the firm moved its headquarters to New York. The New York advertising agencies had developed a reputation for a hard sell approach. They were also perceived by their western and Midwestern clients as favoring companies based on the East Coast. Several of Burnetts clients approached him and suggested he open his own agency. Initially Burnetts loyalty prevailed. Then Art Kudner left Wasey to start his own agency, taking several automobile clients, including General Motors, with him. Burnett relented. It was 1935, Burnett was 44, and on August 5, his own agency opened for business. Burnett borrowed $50,000 to start Leo Burnett Company, Inc. He was joined by a friend, Jack OKieffe, as well as three clientsGreen Giant, Hoover, and Realsilk Hosiery who brought in revenues of some $900,000. The agencys first year was a tough one. Despite attempts to win accounts from both Hershey and Wrigley Gum, Burnett ended the year with the same clients he started with. The second year went the same way. Burnett had briefly recruited Dick Heath, who brought in some business. Unfortunately Burnett and Heath had a falling out within the year and Heath left. It wasnt until OKieffe persuaded Burnett to bring Heath back that things began to improve. In 1940 Leo Burnett landed its first major new client, the American Meat Institute. Thereafter the agency gathered momentum, picking up

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prestigious accounts such as the Pillsbury Family Flour account, Kelloggs Cereals, andthe account that brought Burnett onto the radar of the Madison Avenue agencies the Tea Council, a New York-based organization. Burnetts agency made a name for itself through its distinctive style of advertisingwhat Burnett called stressing the inherent drama in the product. The trickle of clients became a flood after Procter and Gamble appointed Burnetts for an institutional campaign in 1950. In 1955 Burnetts was retained by Philip Morris to develop a campaign for Marlboro cigarettes. The Marlboro campaign with its imagery of the rugged Marlboro Man was one of the most memorable of the 20th century. There were many other notable campaigns in the years that followed. Clients included Schiltz Beer, Maytag, and United Airlines. Burnetts influence on the advertising industry was so great that the term the Chicago School of advertising was coined to describe his and his followers distinctive approach. It was a style that tried to capture the essence of the product in its advertising rather than just use clever words. It was also an inclusive approach that didnt try to play to either East or West Coast America in particular. In the late 1960s, suffering increasingly from illness, Burnett took a back seat in the business he had created. In 1967 he retired, although he continued to come into the office at least twice a week. On June 7, 1971 after a spell in the office, Burnett suffered a heart attack at his home and died that night. He was 79.

Context and Conclusions

Praised by competitors and clients alike, Leo Burnett made a unique contribution to the advertising industry. He created his own, highly influential school of advertisingthe Chicago School. He was driven by a consuming passion for excellence and creativity that shone through in the work of his agency. He also adopted a socially responsible approach to business, demonstrated through the firms pro bono work, conducted in part under the auspices of the Advertising Council. Unlike some other agencies, the pressures of winning business never drove Burnetts company to employ unscrupulous or cut-throat practices. It was a testimony to its founders even-handed approach that he was often praised by his closest rivals.

For More Information

Book: Broadbent, Simon. The Leo Burnett Book of Advertising. London: Business Books, 1984. Web site: Leo Burnett: www.leoburnett.com

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2004